Patellar tendonitis, commonly known as Jumper’s knee, is a clinical condition of gradually progressive activity-related pain resulting from overuse injury of your knee. This causes pain in the tendon which attaches the kneecap or patella to the top of the shin bone or tibia.
Currently the treatment for patellar tendonitis remains provisionally based, as it is not yet known that what interventions may best stimulate a healing response. But there are some very popular conservative treatments still practiced among people suffering from this ailment.
These conservative treatment of patellar tendinopathy which are recorded in the literature includes combinations of exercise and rest. The exercises are especially eccentric ones. Other treatments are like modalities including ultrasound, heat, frictions, biomechanical adjustment, and pharmaceutical treatment. Most of these treatments are based on clinical research are yet to be accurately analyzed.
Some of such conservative treatments are discussed below:- Massages and frictions: Stretching, frictions and Electrophysical modalities are some of the traditional treatment process done through massages for treating patellar tendinopathy. Although some authors said that using a device for all these treatments improved clinical outcomes in patellar tendinitis. But it is actually difficult to deduce from the data reports that the device offered a better outcome than the traditional treatment.
Proper Exercise: Some researches show that the exercise regimens on patellar tendinopathy are effective. These studies focus on strengthening of the muscles around the knee in subjects with jumper's knee, and measuring changes in strength, pain, and function after around ten to twelve weeks of intervention. The results showed varied outputs, but both measured changes in strength and pain. Few of them also ascertained that the pain was comparatively reduced. Some others showed improvement in quadriceps. But it was unclear that if there was a simultaneous reduction in pain or not.
Pharmacotherapy: Researches using injections indicated a good response to this intervention. The study of Capasso et al indicated that aprotinin offered a better outcome than either corticosteroid or placebo. The use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for patellar tendinopathy appears to be warranted in subjects with short term symptoms.
So after learning about the conservative treatments it seems quite surprising that very few studies in patellar tendinopathy have a prospective design. We hope that there would be more relevant studies and research.
This condition generally affects athletes in different sports and at all various levels of participation. But its effects are mainly on the jumping athletes. It causes the athletes bear months of annoyingly slow recovery. This is especially because the treatments are based on nothing more than the personal experience of the treating practitioner.
Most of the studies, researches and reviews indicate that it is impossible to recommend any treatment for this condition. So all the people suffering from this issue, the doctors and the clinicians will remain unsatisfied with the limited treatment options that have been shown to have a beneficial effect on patellar tendonitis until some more strong studies are concluded.
Leon Grant has visited many pain relief therapy centers around Australia. During his visits he interviewed many healthcare professionals, according to them people suffering from patellar tendonitis in Melbourne generally go through the traditional conservative form of treatments for coping up with this condition.
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